Fiat In-House Marketing Campaign Has Everything All Wrapped Up

Workers at two Fiat factories in Italy recently got a surprise when they returned to their foreign-made vehicles after the day’s work. They found them wrapped in plastic on which was emblazoned a broken heart with the message, “Seeing you with someone else breaks my heart, but we’re still thinking of you.”

This was a marketing ploy to persuade Fiat workers to drive Fiat cars. Employees get a decent discount on the cars they make, ranging from twelve to twenty-six percent depending on the model. The maker is also offering a 1,000 euro bonus on top of the discount.

Other companies in the area didn’t see much humor in the act with some calling it “unconventional” at best and an “act of force and pushiness” at worst. Fiat wasn’t affected by the negative comments saying that they are just trying to support car sales. Fiat believes that a “company’s first testimony is who works there” and that an employee should “help to actively promote the company he works for and support the employment of his colleagues.”

This statement doesn’t seem to fit though, considering that Fiat is planning to relocate a couple of its offices to the United Kingdom and the Netherlands. This push for employees to purchase new cars also seems untimely in the face of 13% unemployment in the country at present. Employees who were interviewed as they unwrapped their vehicles were generally not fazed by the promotion, although a few were annoyed. There did not seem to be any added desire to purchase with one man stating that he bought the Renault he was driving used and wasn’t sure he could afford payments on a new Fiat, even with the bonus.

Fiat has no plans at this time to extend this marketing scheme to other factories.